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Mahatma Gandhi |
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A new biography about Mahatma Gandhi aims to reveal intimate details about the Indian freedom movement leader, who is often portrayed as an icon rather than a real person, his grandson and author of the book said.
Mohandas - A true story about a Man, his People and an Empire aims to demystify Gandhi — a figure revered by many as the man that helped end around 300 years of British colonial rule through non-violent means.
It details Gandhi's relationships with family, foes and friends, including a brief tryst with a well-known writer.
"I see my book as being more about the man and not the icon," Rajmohan Gandhi told Reuters in an interview at the book launch, which occurred at the same place Mahatma was assassinated in New Delhi almost 60 years ago.
"This is different from other books because it is a complete and chronological biography which is completely candid ... other biographies have focused on some aspects of his life, invariably eliminating other aspects."
Running to almost 700 pages, the biography took two and a half years to write. Publishers Penguin say the book will finally answer questions about the life of the timid youth from India's west coast who became a century's conscience and led his nation to liberty.
The book portrays Gandhi's daily life and closest relationships, his face-offs with the British Empire and with his own bitterly divided people and family.
"The book will release Gandhi from his shroud and myth," said his 71-year-old grandson, a former member of parliament who is now a lecturer at the University of Illinois.
"It will tell the reader the truth ... and will show the depth of his resilience and his stamina, despite being tested time and time again."
Gandhi's Love Affair
In the book, there is a four-page account of how the married Gandhi — respected for his wisdom and simplicity — had a love affair with a talented writer, Saraladevi, the niece of renowned poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
The book details how Gandhi "was dazzled by her personality and seemed to fantasise that providence desired them together to shape India to a new design" and how he was forced to end the relationship for the sake of his family.
The author said the affair was not a secret, knocking down a recent article in a local magazine which touted the relationship as clandestine.
"It was not a secret love affair. It was published in several books years ago," said Gandhi. "There was no illicit relationship in the sense that there was no sex in the relationship."
He said writing about the affair would not hurt Gandhi's almost saintly image and that those closest to the Mahatma — his family and his followers — had welcomed it.
"I was writing the whole truth about Gandhi, so I had to write about that as well."
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